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Archives Project Update: Year 1 Summer / Fall 2010 Vol. 60, no. 2/3 Archives Project Update: Year 1 A processing manual has been created to ensure unifor- Cynthia Rufo, ASOR Archivist mity in collections processed by graduate student interns. The manual also includes digitization procedures and n our first year, the ASOR archives project has gone guidelines for handling archival materials. from a start-up project to a fully functional archive. For more information about our processing procedures, IWhile there is still a huge amount to be done, be sure to read the accompanying article on processing. a formal archive has undoubtedly been established. 2. Conservation The goals we have achieved in the first of the project fall into five categories: In addition to the American Palestine Exploration Soci- ety collection, ASOR’s 1873 Ottoman firman has also been 1. Processing digitized and sent to NEDCC for conservation. Because the To date, twenty one collections have been processed, archivist is trained in preservation and preservation digi- or are in process. Fifteen finding aids are available on the tization, we were able to significantly reduce the original ASOR website. (Appendix 1.) With each collection we pro- budgeted costs associated with the digitization and conser- cess, the importance of this body of materials becomes vation of these materials. more apparent. The collections that have been processed 3. Digitization during this period include the Clarence Fisher Papers, which contain Fisher’s exhaustive and unpublished Pal- A digitization workflow has been established in ac- estinian Pottery Corpus, the Shechem Excavation Records, cordance with digitization standards and best practices. and the papers of Ernest Wright, the former ASOR Presi- In total, we have digitized over 15,000 documents, pho- dent who was involved in the discovery and publication tographs, and drawings. Again, we are ahead of the work of the Dead Sea Scrolls. All three of these collections have plan, which called for the development, not the execution already been used by researchers. of a digitization workflow. continued on page 3 The American Palestine Exploration Society Photo- graph Collection (informally referred to as the “Dumas IN THIS NEWSLETTER photos”) was slated for processing, digitization, and con- servation in the next phase of work. However, we are ASOR Archives Project Update .............................................................. 1, 3 ahead of schedule with this and many other processing What does it mean to Process a Collection ............................................ 4-5 projects. The photograph collection was processed, digi- Chairman’s Report to the Board of Trustees .................................... 6-7, 9 tized, and sent to the Northeast Document Conservation Highlights from the Spring Center (NEDCC) for repair in May. Executive Committee and Board Meetings .......................................... 8-9 The three collections housed at the Semitic Museum Fiscal Year 2010 Honor Roll ....................................................................... 10 at Harvard University have been almost completely pro- ASOR Annual Meeting Academic Program ..................................... 11-26 cessed. In the original work plan, these records were not ASOR Annual Meeting to be addressed until the second year of the project. How- Business Meetings, Receptions, and Events Schedule ............................ 27 ever, these materials were identified as having great po- Academic Program Updates for the 2011 Annual Meeting .................28 tential interest to researchers. Since processing began, four The American Center of Oriental Research (AMMAN) researchers have used these collections. Announcement of fellowships 2011-2012 ........................................ 30-31 The American Schools Letter From the President of Oriental Research is a nonprofit, scientific and educational organization founded in 1900. SOR’s archives are a velopment plan for feedback, P. E. MacAllister uniquely important with the goal of submitting Chairman of the Board resource. They pre- it for approval at the spring A Timothy P. Harrison serve an unparalleled record of board meetings in April of President the history of North American next year. scholarship in the Middle East, Concurrent with this ef- Eric M. Meyers Past President from its earliest engagements fort, it is incumbent that we in the nineteenth century continue to maintain our ac- Andrew G. Vaughn through to the present. Thanks tive program and financial Executive Director to funding from the NEH, commitments. Thankfully, Tammi J.Schneider and the generous support of as I reported in our previous Vice President for Membership our membership, these records are finally newsletter, this past year was another receiving the attention they deserve, and Michael Homann successful one for ASOR. Despite the Morag Kersel will soon become more readily accessible continuing economic turbulence, ASOR Co-Vice Presidents for Programs to the scholarly community and broader ended the fiscal year with a balanced public, in keeping with ASOR’s mission to Jeffrey A. Blakely budget, this while continuing to award Vice President for Publications preserve and disseminate such knowledge. fellowships and maintain our full range As archivist Cynthia Rufo reports in her of programs, including another success- Øystein S. LaBianca cover story, the archives contain a wealth Vice President for ful annual meeting, and our full suite of Archaeological Research and Policy of intriguing documents, from diaries and publications. first hand ‘eye witness’ reports in the field Contributions to our Annual Fund James Strange to documents recording historic agree- were crucial to this success. I am pleased Secretary ments or events. Some are humorous, and to report that we had 100% participation Sheldon Fox many mirror the important political events from the Board, which also collectively in- Treasurer of the day. creased its support to historic levels. This The archives also preserve an insti- generous level of support was mirrored by ASOR tutional memory that is important as we our Membership, which also increased its 656 Beacon Street, 5th floor plan and look to the future, and it was in- giving considerably over previous years. Boston, MA 02215-2010 strumental in guiding the deliberations of Tel. (617) 353-6570 In all, 196 individuals contributed during Fax. (617) 353-6575 the Strategic Planning Task Force over the the past fiscal year, representing a 25% E-mail: [email protected] past two years. As I reported in our last increase over the previous year. In addi- newsletter, the ASOR Board approved the tion, approximately $22,000 was raised adoption of a Strategic Plan (www.asor. toward our Archives Initiative, thanks in org) at its spring meetings earlier this year, large part to more than 40 contributions and we have now begun to work toward made in response to a matching challenge implementing the recommendations put by three generous donors. These positive forward in this plan. To help coordinate results simply would not have been pos- and facilitate this effort, I have convened sible without the dedicated support of an Implementation Task Force, which will our membership. report to the Board and our membership The active involvement and support The ASOR Newsletter in the months to come. of our membership, therefore, will be With approval of the Strategic Plan, crucial if we are to continue the positive Andrew G. Vaughn, Editor we are now also in a position to produce Kelley Bazydlo, Associate Editor progress we have accomplished as an or- Jennifer Ste. Marie, Layout a coordinated development strategy to ganization over the past few years. These raise more permanent support for ASOR’s are exciting times for ASOR, and I wish The ASOR Newsletter (ISSN 0361-6029) programs. Accordingly, I will be working to express my heartfelt thanks and appre- is published quarterly by the American closely with the Development Committee ciation to each and everyone who gave so Schools of Oriental Research over the coming months to produce a de- generously this past year. I look forward © 2010 by tailed fundraising plan designed to identi- to seeing you in Atlanta. Until then, the The American Schools fy potential funding sources and raise the best of success. of Oriental Research funds needed to underwrite the programs Yours sincerely, and priorities articulated in the Strategic www.asor.org Plan. We will circulate drafts of this de- 2 ASOR Newsletter, Summer / Fall 2010 ASOR Archives Project Update continued from page 1 paigns. A challenge campaign raised a total of $16,484. The sale of notecards featuring images from the archives (pro- 4. Metadata Encoding duced at no cost to ASOR by a donor) raised $2,600. We To manage and encode finding aids, we have partnered have also applied for three pending grants. One of these with the Boston University library and installed “Archon.” grants is a Boston University Jewish Cultural Endowment Archon is an open source archives content management grant, the second is a NEH Preservation Assistance grant, software package that encodes finding aids using Encoded and the third is a NEH Humanities Collections and Refer- Archival Description (EAD) and has the ability to present ence Resources grant to enhance access to digital collec- finding aids and digital objects in an online interface. Pres- tions once the current grant ends. ently, Archon resides on a hidden test server while we popu- Something we did not anticipate when initially
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